Bishop John

A group of eminent Tasmanians have just released a great resource which answers questions about euthanasia: REALdignitytas.com

You will be able to hear about true dignity and the dangers of euthanasia to our society by such experts as: Dr Jeremy Prichard (Criminal Law Lecturer),Dr Nicholas Cooling (Senior Lecturer & GP),The Honourable William Cox (Former Governor of Tasmania), Professor Ray Rowenthal (Director Medical Oncology), Dr Paul Dunne (Palliative Care Specialist), The Honourable Ray Groom (Southern Cross Care), Professor Michael Tate (International Law Lecturer) and Dr Kristi Giselsson (Doctor of Philosophy).

 Below are links to questions that can be answered from this website:

Q1: What is euthanasia and assisted suicide?

Euthanasia is the deliberate act undertaken by one person with the intention of ending the life of another person in order to relieve that person’s suffering.
Assisted suicide is the act of intentionally killing oneself with the assistance of another who provides the knowledge, means or both.

Q2: What is the legal position of euthanasia and assisted suicide in Tasmania?

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are illegal in Tasmania. Euthanasia and assisted suicide are illegal in all states and territories of Australia; and in almost all other countries in the world.

Q3: What are my rights with regard to discontinuing medical treatment? If death results, isn’t this a form of euthanasia?

1. Patients do not receive unwanted, burdensome and futile treatments.
2. A competent adult may refuse medical treatment even if that refusal will result in his or her death…

Q4:But what about all those people who are near death and suffer intolerable pain?

Whilst it is important to recognise the difficulties experienced by the small number of  individuals suffering such pain, what is clear from this finding is that in those small number of cases, terminal sedation or the administration of pain relief is a legally acceptable response. There is no need to introduce intentional killing as a treatment option.

Q5:Aren’t doctors already practising euthanasia in Tasmania by administering pain killers to deliberately end lives?

It is important to note that euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide is not a component of palliative care. Palliative Care Australia, the national peak body for Palliative Care in Australia states that ‘The practice of palliative and end of life care does not include deliberate ending of life through voluntary euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide, even if the patient requests this

Q6:Opinion polls show an overwhelming support for freedom of choice in euthanasia. Why not just go with public opinion?

Often the questions asked in opinion polls are ambiguous or not situated in the correct context Opinion polls show that the closer a person is involved in palliative care and with the dying, the less likely that person is to be in favour of euthanasia.

Lots more helpful information at REALdignitytas.com.  Also, Euthanasia: Care or Killing?

Bishop Ross Nicholson writes on Bonsai & Ministry.

Many years ago my mother-in-law introduced me to bonsai. I do recall as a child reading about this Japanese horticultural art form and being intrigued. To the point where I found an orange seed and placed it in a plastic top from a soft drink bottle to see if I could make a miniature tree. Needless to say, as well as the art there is the science.

Bonsai are real trees and they need to be nurtured like any other plant. They need sunlight, regular watering and feeding. But it’s in the pruning of the branches and roots that the bonsai is formed. It is that pruning that makes these tiny facsimiles of their free growing cousins. The final aesthetic element is the pot in which they are grown. Bonsai actually means ‘in a pot’.

Coming to Tasmania meant I had to suspend my hobby because of quarantine restrictions, so my collection is being cared for by my mother-in-law. But that is also part of the beauty of bonsai, you don’t have to do it every week. When I return to Sydney and visit my in-laws I’ll often do the tasks that shape and style the tree.

Last year I decided, however, it was time to start again and so I’ve begun gathering new trees to be trained. On a visit to a sale at a local nursery I found three Banksia trees that I can experiment on. On the grounds of St John’s Launceston grow a number of oak trees that are surrounded by little oaks which will make a lovely group planting in a large flat pot. A Japanese maple offered me a nice specimen after I used the technique called air layering to trick a branch high up in the tree to strike roots into a bag of sphagnum moss. A bush saw and some patience has given me a nice future bonsai. The same method gave me a lilac and hopefully a blue spruce. A myrtle and Huon pine add a Tasmanian feel to my future collection.

If we have eyes to see, the natural world will offer us lessons of a spiritual nature. Bonsai reminds me that just like trees we disciples of Christ need to be nurtured with spiritual food and water. As I trim and shape the branches of my specimens Jesus’ words come vividly alive;

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” John 15: 1-2

See also, Hobbies of the Clergy #1

In recent times there have been a number of voices that have reminded us that when we talk about marriage we are talking about something blessed and beautiful.  In the midst of current debates we have a positive message.

We have had the Dean of Hobart’s recent talk at a Friday Forum.  And next week the Excellent Marriage event is being held at the Stanley Burbury Theatre at the University of Tasmania in Hobart.  There are more details at the Excellent Marriage website.

Construction is underway at Wellspring Anglican Church in Hobart and we invited the media to come along. See our media release with information about Wellspring and the building project, here.

The journalist and photographer from the Hobart Mercury duly arrived and they spent a good half an hour with us.

When dealing with the media I confess to a degree of uncertainty as the final product is out of our hands and very public! What would the resultant article be?

I was very pleased to see that the Chinese membership and ministry of Wellspring was highlighted, Church, Chinese embrace.  A good sized photograph drew attention to the article.

I am grateful to the Mercury for this positive article on one of our parish churches. Thank you to all involved. The only ‘glitch’ in the story that my critical eye could see was the lack of information about other Wellspring ministries that are contributing to growth. But I am grateful for the article’s emphasis.

Please pray for a safe work site, that construction goes to plan and the new Wellspring Church building will be used to build worship, fellowship and outreach in Jesus’ name, through the power of the Holy Spirit and to the glory of God the Father. Amen.

My dear friend Russell Morton shared the following encouragement with me recently. He came across the quote from Charles Spurgeon when doing some research on the provenance of the term, “the old, old story”.

A Sermon  (No. 446) Delivered on Sunday Evening, March 30th, 1862, by C. H. SPURGEON, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

“In due time Christ died for the ungodly.”—Romans 5:6.

Here is a doctor of divinity here to-night who listened to me some years ago. He has been back to his own dwelling-place in America, and he has come here again.

I could not help fancying, as I saw his face just now, that he would think I was doting on the old subject, and harping on the old strain; that I had not advanced a single inch upon any new domain of thought, but was preaching the same old gospel in the same old terms as ever. If he should think so he will be quite right.

I suppose I am something like Mr. Cecil when he was a boy. His father once told him to wait in a gateway till he came back, and the father, being very busy, went about the city; and amidst his numerous cares and engagements, he forgot the boy. Night came on, and at last when the father reached home, there was great enquiry as to where Richard was. The father said, “Dear me, I left him early in the morning standing under such-and-such a gateway, and I told him to stay there until I came for him; I should not wonder but what he is there now.” So they went, and there they found him. Such an example of childish simple faithfulness it is no disgrace to emulate.

I received some years ago orders from my Master to stand at the foot of the cross until he came. He has not come yet, but I mean to stand there till he does.

If I should disobey his orders and leave those simple truths which have been the means of the conversion of souls, I know not how I could expect his blessing.

Here, then, I stand at the foot of the cross and tell out the old, old story, stale though it sound to itching ears, and worn threadbare as critics may deem it.

It is of Christ I love to speak—of Christ who loved, and lived, and died, the substitute for sinners, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.